CLEVELAND — “To be the man, you’ve got to beat the man.”
Sports entertainment superstar and two-time World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Fame inductee Ric Flair was famous for saying that line in interviews throughout his career, and the Cleveland Browns are feeling very much the same way as “The Nature Boy.”
The Browns want to be at the top of the AFC North Division standings at the end of the regular season, but in order to get there, they must go through this week’s opponent, the Baltimore Ravens, whom they play on the road at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore Sunday.
“Big division game this week,” Browns coach Freddie Kitchens said after breaking down film of the Ravens. “Baltimore is playing really good football. Everything we do in this division goes through Baltimore. They are the defending champs of the division.
“We are looking forward to the challenge. It will be a physical game. They always try to create that. We want to form our identity to do the same thing.”
The Ravens’ physical style of football starts with their desire to run with the one-two punch of quarterback Lamar Jackson and running back Mark Ingram II.
Over the first three weeks of the 2019 season, Jackson completed 63 of his 100 attempts (63.0 percent) for 863 yards and seven touchdowns without an interception. The elusive Jackson has been sacked just six times for 33 lost yards, and he has added 172 yards and one score on 27 carries.
Currently, Jackson is top five in the NFL in passing touchdowns, quarterback rating, yards per attempt and 20-yard completions.
Ingram has gained 257 yards and scored five touchdowns on 43 carries, including three scores in a loss at the Kansas City Chiefs last Sunday, and has caught six passes for 62 yards this season.
“They have done a great job with Lamar and his skillset,” Kitchens said. “He has improved as a passer.
“Everything kind of runs through him and Mark. Mark has come in, stepped right in and kind of takes on their mantra of being physical. He is a downhill, physical-type runner that can make you miss in space, so we have our work cut out for us defensively.”
Regardless of the challenges facing them in Baltimore, Kitchens knows what the mission is this week: to bring back a victory against the Ravens.
“Anytime you play Baltimore, what they really want to do is run the football and play good defense,” Kitchens said. “That is the way you should approach games for the most part, depending on what your skill set is. I think that is lasting over time. That will always continue to be how you win football games consistently, and they are a perfect example of that.
“We try to win every time we go out, and this is a big division game. Our division games mean more than other games, just as they do in Baltimore and just as they do in Pittsburgh. This is no difference. Of course, we want to get on the plane being 2-2. That is everybody’s goal. If you are 1-2, you want to be 2-2. That is really the only thing that we are worried about.”